Six and counting: Antonelli takes pole at the Belgian Qualifying

Kimi Antonelli has had a rough few weeks. A retirement in Barcelona, a missed win in Austria, and a points-less weekend at Silverstone. Coming into Belgium, the 19-year-old needed to remind us that he was still in this to win it. On Saturday at during the Belgian Qualifying, he took his sixth pole position of the season.

It wasn’t an easy session by any means. Although Antonelli struggled in Q1 with George Russell outpacing him within the Mercedes garage for the first time all weekend, his final lap of 1m 44.361s put him three-tenths clear of Max Verstappen, who had been aided by a tow from his teammate Isack Hadjar on both of his flying laps.

The margins at the top were brutally tight, with Russell qualifying fourth, just 0.508s off pole. The Ferrari duo, Leclerc and Hamilton were separated by just 0.002s in fifth and sixth. Piastri, Lindblad, and Bortoleto made up the rest of the top nine, with Hadjar at tenth at Spa-Francorchamps.

Q1: Norris sets the tone, Ocon bows out

Spa-Francorchamps has the longest lap on the calendar, so most drivers stayed in their garages for the first few minutes to time their runs. When the field did head out, it was Norris who set the early pace for McLaren. Verstappen was the first of the frontrunners to push him, but it was Lindblad of Racing Bulls who came closest to the Dutchman in the early stages of the 2026 Belgian Qualifying.

Further back, the session had a bittersweet tone. Esteban Ocon was eliminated on the 10th anniversary of his F1 debut, not the way you’d want to mark the occasion. He was joined on the sidelines by both Aston Martins, both Cadillacs, and Alex Albon, who was outqualified by his Williams teammate for the sixth time in ten rounds.

Q2: Antonelli returns, Lindblad shines

All eyes were on Antonelli as Q2 of the Belgian Qualifying got underway. He had been beaten by Russell in Q1 for the first time all weekend, and he needed a response. The youngster logged a time of 1m 45.142s, going straight back to the top, while Russell struggled on his first run and ended up over half a second behind.

The surprise of the segment was Arvid Lindblad, who put his freshly upgraded Racing Bulls car into a provisional P6. At the other end of the story, Hülkenberg’s session came to an abrupt end with a hydraulic leak that briefly stopped Q3 in the middle. He was eliminated along with Sainz, Bearman, Gasly, Colapinto, and Lawson.

Q3: Antonelli’s lap settles the Belgian Qualifying

Verstappen went early in Q3, with Hadjar sacrificing his own lap to give his teammate a tow. It was a move that paid off and handed Max an early provisional pole. Norris then went faster still, briefly going to the top. The 2026 Belgian Qualifying looked like it could go any way.

Then Antonelli crossed the line. His final lap of 1m 44.361s, with a particularly strong Sector 2, put him 0.317s clear of Verstappen, and the clock ran out.

The penalty picture

The grid for Sunday looks a little different from the resulting order of the 2026 Belgian Qualifying.

Norris drops ten places after McLaren exceeded their power unit allocation, starting P13 instead of P3. Hadjar takes a 30-place penalty for the same reason, starting from the back despite qualifying tenth. Alonso and Stroll also take penalties, though given where Aston Martin currently sit in the pecking order, the impact is limited.

Russell moves up to P3 as a result of Norris’s drop, though the Briton was far from satisfied after qualifying. He admitted the team still hasn’t found the root cause after carrying the same issue from Silverstone.

For Antonelli, though, Saturday was exactly what was needed. He’s on pole, he’s hungry, and as he put it himself, ‘it’s going to be fun tomorrow.’